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THE TEST; 



National (>lav tJltilj 



1 aJUUtt 
Copy 1959 



PARTIES TRIED BY THEIR ACTS, 



Author 



BY JUNIUS, 

of "THE CRISIS OF THE COUNTRY," and other Tracts of 1840. 



PUBLISHED BY 
GREELEY & McELRATH, TRIBUNE BUILDINGS, NEW YORK, 

AND 

GODEY & McMICHAEL, PHILADELPHIA. 

FOR SALE BY 

Thomas Cowperthwut & Co., and Grigg & Elliot, Philadelphia; G. W. Redding, 

^B;KT1« & Co., Ptttsburg; W. H Taylob, Baltimore; R. 

Farn.iam, Washington City; and Wm. McKean, New Orleans. 

1843. 

Price $3 per 100, or $20 per 1000. 



tii_ i>_- .. ■ 



\ i , i " "•' 

Oourtof the United States, in and for the Eastern Uistncfof Pennsylvania.] 



CITY OF WASHINGTON, March 4, 1843. 
We the undersigned, impressed with a conviction of the importance and effectiveness of 

and of the suitable qualifications * J n U p J"^BHK Side c rculat on and great usefulness of 

£5" « wSltad^SS « W% AfflBL .l„o„gh.u, the Union, ,. second his 

efforts, if undertaken. 



Millard Fillmore, 
John Maynard, 
W. H. Washington, 
Roger L. Gamble, 
B. S. Cowan, 
John Moore, 
R. W. Thompson, 
L. W. Andrews, 
T. W. Tomi.inson, 
GaBBETT Davis, 
B. RoD.NETt 

H. S. 1 

J.\o. Edwards, 
Aug. Young, 
Jos. Trumbull, 
J. R. Ingersoll, 



SENATORS. 

W. P. Mangum. President, 

J. J. Crittenden, 

J. T. Morehead, 

N. P. Tallmadge, 

Wm. S. Archer, 

Sam. el S. Phelps, 

J. W. Miller, 

C. M. Conrad, 

J. T. Simm 

J. Li . 

REPR ESENTATIVES. 

John White, Speaker, 
Thos. Butler King, 

ftS-NoTlCK -In compliance with the above recommendation, the Author of this Tract pro- 
rJ^tf Son should seem to require, to publish several of the same kind, on the political 
ouesti'ons of tL time The responsibilities involved in the undertaking make it necessary to 
Tin ai" the priv ele of cmyright. Republication, therefore, in newspapers, or in other forms, 
^Sddel The Tracts £a/be had, in any part of the Union, through the agenfcy of Bog- 
tellers generally; or from those above named; or by remittances, w.th orders, tore*, on the 
publishers. 



J. H. Cravens 
John T. Stuart, 
A. H. H. Stuart, 
A. Randall, 
Geo. W. Summers, 
C. H. Williams, 
Alfred Babcock, 
A. Lawrence Foster, 
R. L. Caruthers, 
Milton Brown, 
J.'M. Russell, 
Thos. Henry, 
J. R. Underwood. 
J. A. Pearck. 
Edward Stanley, 
J. C. Clark-* 



THE TWENTY-SEVENTH (WHIG) CONGRESS. 

Its ■position. 
It was a singular one in history — perfectly so in the annals of this country. The 
Government had been for a long time in the hands of their political opponents, till 
a once prosperous nation had been reduced to an extremity of misfortune, and rose 
at last to demand a change in public policy. With a majority unparalleled, the 
Whigs came into power, and a suffering people looked to them for relief. It was 
fair they should, for it had been promised, though the expectations of immediate 
result were doubtless unreasonable. 

The first inauspicious blow. 

None can deny that the death of their Chieftain was an astounding event. It 
was striking the sun from the political heaven. 

The second blow. 
The constitutional successor was little known, altogether untried, and was never 
expected to be called to that place. Diffidence towards him was the first' state of 
feeling ; concern the next ; which ended in utter and hopeless disappointment. All 
know how that turned out ; and we need not dwell on the painful history. 

An unforeseen result. 

In the constitution of our Government, the Executive occupies a commanding 
position in relation to the other branches. It seems never to have been anticipated, 
that he could be opposed to the legislature appointed by the same constituency, 
nor would such an event occur, if good faith in these high relations could at all 
times be relied on. It is manifest, however, that an Executive, not acting in har- 
mony with the legislative branch of the Government, but opposing it, is a derange- 
ment of the machinery as to its intended operation. His power is sufficient to 
paralyze legislation, and to nullify any system of policy aimed to be established by 
legislative functions. 

A thing to be considered . 

Since it has been discovered, that the second on the Presidential ticket of 1840, 
who succeeded as principal by the death of the Chief, is not the man he was taken 
for, but utterly opposed to the great and leading principles of the party that raised 
him to power — if he has any princb^fcLat all — it must be considered, that the 
legislative branch of the GovernmJ^^B| majority of whom wore true to those 
principles, were rendered powerlesi«| Wthat system of policy that was designed 
to be established by the political revl^^R of 1840. 

The question to be tried. 
It will follow, therefore, that the 27th Congress cannot fairly be put on trial for 
not having done impossibilities, but only for what they could do and have done, under 
the peculiar circumstances in which they were placed, to redeem the pledges by 
which they were bound. 

The difficulties of the Whig Congress. 

In the grave of General Harrison was tmried the Whig administration. Could 
Tiny one expect, that the effects of many years misrule could be repaired in thirty 
days ? There was not time to begin to do it, before the adverse winds of Executive 
power were blowing strong against the tide of reform. Treason was hatched, and 
began to peep and strut abroad, before the successor of the Fallen had been in his 
seat ten days. 

Another difficulty. 

The expectations of the nation were great, and the people 'demanded relief 
speedily, earlier than in any case it could possibly be obtained. A country which 
for an eighth of a century had been operated upon by causes of ruin, till it was 
prostrate, could not be raised again suddenly. 

Another. 
Nor was it possible for Congress alone to do the work, against a plotting, sub- 






verting, thwarting, and opposing Executive. They were, paralyzed, and their 
power of restoring public prosperity was stricken down. Even their investigating 
committees, whose functions were -designed to ferret out corruption, were met at 
the threshold of their undertaking by the agents and abettors of corruption, who 
held in their hands the keys of the knowledge that was sought for, and whom the 
Executive still retained in their places, . thus refusing to furnish the necessary 
facilities of reform. Deep and large as the fountains of corruption that have been 
laid open, are, it is believed that most of them, by this cause, yet lie concealed. 

The difficulties encountered on the currency question. 
All know that this was the question on which the country had been wrecked : 
that it was the great question. And all know with what patience, self-torture, and 
self-immolation, the Whigs of the 27th Congress waded through the Extra Ses- 
sion, struggling with ceaseless though useless endeavour, to save the party and the 
country from such unexampled perfidy. Giving up half, or more than half, and 
trying in every possible way to surmount the doom that was cast in their face, 
once, twice, were their large concessions baffled by the arbitrary interposition of 
the veto power. What they could, they attempted ; what they could, they did. 
"Who does the best his circumstance allows, 
Does well, acts nobly, angels could no more." 

The Exchequer. 

And why did not the Whigs of the 27th Congress adopt that ? Can it have 
been forgotten, with what argument and eloquence the vices and tendencies of the 
Subtreasury, political and other, were denounced by the Whigs in the campaigr 
of 1840,, and how their reasons prevailed with the people'! Is it not in equally 
vivid remembrance, that the Subtreasury was repealed by popular demand and 
acclamation, as conceded by its friends and advocates'! But the Whigs believe, 
and have demonstrated, in the report of the Committee of Ways and Means, con- 
temporaneous with the vote of 193 to 18, which sealed the doom of the Exchequer — 
m that document they have demonstrated, that it has all the vices of the Subtreasury, 
and many more to boot ; that it is the most hideous government bank scheme that 
could well be conceived ; that, if carried into effect, it would enhance Executive 
power to an extent hazardous to liberty ; and that, in the hands of an unprincipled, 
aspiring Executive, of strong and influential character, it might be seized upon for 
the overthrow of all liberty, and for the establishment of despotism. It is futile to 
rely on the power of repeal, when the whole history of our Government shows, that 
the Executive will can defeat any movement in the form of legislation. The people 
cannot contend against this " fixed Constitutional fact," except by a revolution ; 
and the only safe way is to keep out of its power. 

The Whigs, with good reason and sound argument, had denounced the Subtrea- 
sury as a Government Bank in embryo, while it was in the process of incubation, 
and* opposed it as such when it was hatched, and because it was such — because, 
confessedly, it provided a good currency for office-holders, but for them only, and 
left a bad currency for the people. How, then, could they, in the face of such facts, 
and in fealty to the principles avowed by them in 1840— principles so often and so 
widely promulged, and still maintained — how could they adopt the same institu- 
tion — identically the same, except that it was presented in a perfect stage of matu- 
rity, and therefore in its most objectionable form 1 

But what is a Government Bank ? 

It is Government stepping aside from its appropriate functions, and setting up in 
trade ; for banking is nothing more or less than trading in money. It is, so far, 
laying aside the proper uses of Government, and usurping the rights of citizens- 
commercial rights. A Government managing banking concerns, is a Commercial 
Factory. No Government ever went into trade, in money or any thing else, with- 
out injury to the rights of citizens ; or with gain to itself, except in the augmenta- 
tion of its power, which is always its object. It is sure to sacrifice the commercial 
capital invested. 

The insurmountable objection. 

It is a very important point of difference, that a Government Bank has no Master, 



because it is a part of Government, and an arm of its power ; whereas all other 
banks have a Master in the Government. A national Government Bank, to answer 
the purpose of such an institution, aims to reg-mate and control the currency of the 
country, and in doing- that, it — that is, the Government — brings within its power, to 
deal with at pleasure, every possible commercial or trading interest of the country, 
from that of banking in general, down to the vocation of a grinder of knives or a 
retailer of brickdust. It would be a supreme commercial power, in the hands of the 
supreme political power, controlled by none, but controlling all, itself master in 
trade, and master of the authorities under which all trade is carried on. This is 
the sort of thing which the 27th Congress rejected— spurned, as in duty bound, if 
they would respect themselves, and have the respect of the American people. 

THE EXTRAVAGANCE AND CORRUPTION OF THE LATE ADMINISTRATION. 

We begin with Congress, where reform in Government must first begin, if it 
begins at all. The people will doubtless be astonished at the extravagancies of this 
body for a few years past, in the administration of its own internal economy, and 
at the corruption practised and tolerated in its own bosom. Could a body, prac- 
tising such things, and conniving at such things, be expected to institute reform for 
other departments of the government ! 

Cost of the printing, binding, engraving, and lithographing of Congress. 

This is, in any case, a large item of expense. The subject had been under 
investigation for two or three years, having been started by the Whigs while in the 
minority, and in 1842 much information appeared in the form of Congressional 
reports, to which we are indebted for the following results: 

It was found upon investigation, that the average annual expenses, under the 
above general head, were $261,459, and that the average annual saving under the 
new system, proposed and recommended by the Committees, would be $132,761 ; 
and consequently, that the average annual unnecessary expense, or waste, in this 
item, is equal to this saving, viz. $132,761. (See Senate Doc. No. 332, 2d Sess. 
27th Congress.) In other words, the waste is 50 per cent, on the cost. That is 
to say, the Government not only permitted such extravagance to grow up in its 
own domicile, not only tolerated it for a long succession of years, but sanctioned it 
by solemn acts of legislation, to provide for it. 

Contingent expenses of Congress. 

This is an atrocious item in the history of the past, and shows how little depen- 
dance could be placed in a national legislature for general economy and purity, that 
would be guilty of such a lack of both these useful qualities in the management of 
their own household. 

The custom of supplying members of Congress with stationery, &c, or the 
custom of members voting themselves a supply out of the people's money, on a 
reasonable scale, might not be very objectionable. It would be thought mean to 
oppose it, though when well paid, they might as well afford to provide for them- 
selves as the people do in their own case. But the extent of wasteful prodi- 
gality to which this custom at last arrived, will no doubt awaken some surprise in 
the minds of the people who paid for it all, and whose private habits of economy in 
such matters, are somewhat different. 

For stationery used by the 25th Congress, the first under Mr. Van Buren, we 
find such items as the following in the report of one of the Committees on retrench- 
ment (by- Mr. Summers), 2d Session, 27th Congress, House Doc. No. 39: 



For 3,079 reams envelope paper, 
" 3,610 do. quarto post, 
" 2,316 do. foolscap, - 

172 do. note, - 
" 493 gross of steel pens, 
" 83,700 quills, 
" making of pens, - 
" sealing-wax, - 

" tape, - - - - ■ - 
" 106 doz. penknives, 



$12,603 25 


21.059 25 


9,951 25 


1,559 50 


4,569 39 


3,953 12 


448 00 


3,931 62 


2,739 30 


2,602 CO 



For wafers, ... 

" ink, 15 barrels, 

" inkstands, - 

" seals, - 

" pencils, - 

" folders, - 

" twine, - - - - 

" 1,197 memorandum books, 

Total, 



$1,332 01 
528 50 
921 00 
1,080 00 
562 00 
615 00 
312 72 
746 87 

$69,514 78 



Which, divided among 242 members of the House, shows, that the cost for station- 
ery, for each member of the 25th Congress, for a period usually about nine months, 
was §287.25. 

How much is the average annual cost to professional men, lawyers, for example, 
for the above-named articles of stationery ? The writer of this Tract thinks his 
occasions for these may perhaps be equal to those of a member of Congress, and he 
believes they do not cost him over §2.) a year — for nine months $15 — which leaves 
$272.25 for each member of the House of Representatives, in the 25th Congress, 
unaccounted for to the people — in all $65,884.78 — a pretty round sum of waste for 
one branch of the national legislature, on the above-named articles. 

How many penknives did they use severally] Divide K!6 dozen, or 1272, by 
242, and we have the answer thus — 5~-^. The average price of these penknives, 
it will be seen, was $2.04 and a fraction each, which, of course, makes a bill of a 
little less than $12, to supply each member of the 25th Congress in penknives for 
nine months. His sealing-wax cost somewhat over $16; his quarto post paper, $80 
and some cents ; and, so on. — We leave the rest with the curious. 

We suppose the excessive price of these articles results in the same way, by 
which the Clerk of the House of Representatives of the same Congress, Mr. Gar- 
land, contracted with a favorite of the President, Editor of " The Democratic Re- 
view," to furnish stationery to the amount of $25,060, whereon the said favorite 
cleared a profit of $7,000 to himself, over and above a fair profit in trade, as was 
proved and reported to the 27th Congress. In this way, of course, a penknife, 
which, in a fair market, costs $1.50, would cost the people over $2; and so with 
all the other articles. But when there happen to be two intermediate agents, each 
to make an extra profit of 33 J per cent, on the same articles, that helps to run up 
a bill fast. It would be difficult to account for these bills, except in such ways. 

It appears from Mr. Summers' Report, before referred to, that the whole contin- 
gent expenses of the House of Representatives rose from $106,000, in the 18th 
Congress, till they attained a maximum in the 25th Congress, of $595,000, increas- 
ing nearly 6 to 1 in sixteen years. 

It also appears, that the contingent expenses of the Senate for the year 1838, 
under Mr. Van Buren, were greater, by the sum of $86,000, than for 1828, under 
Mr. J. Q. Adams ; and greater, by $24,000, than for the whole four years, under 
Mr. Adams. A like result turns up in comparing the contingent expenses of the 
House for the same periods ; viz. that the aggregate, during Mr. Adams's four 
years, was less, by $89,000, than the same item for the one year, 1838, under Mr. 
Van Buren. (Compare No. 17, House Doc. 1st Sess. 26th Congress, with No. 39, 
House Doc. 1st Sess. 24th Congress.) 

FINANCIAL PRODIGALITIES OF THE FLORIDA WAR. 

The profuse and wasteful expenditures of public money, as partially disclosed 
under this head, and one or two others, might alone account for the startling 
expenses of Government during the two administrations preceding the one now 
current, as compared with our former financial history and the level of public 
expenditures as reduced by the 27th Congress. We have room only for a few quo- 
tations from the volumes of public documents on this and other kindred topics, 
which may serve as a clue to the rest. 

Extravagant hire of steamboats and other vessels. 

From the beginning of 1836 to 1841, the number of steamboats and sail craft 
employed in the transportation service for the Florida war, was 737, for which a 
very extravagant hire was generally paid. About fifty of these are named in House 
Document No. 458, 2d Session 27th Congress, and their rates of hire specified. 
We give the following as specimens : — The steamboat, John Crowell, estimated to 
be worth $15,000, was hired at $300 a day, provided for and insured, till the 
compensation amounted to $82,555. The Reindeer, 42 days, at $175 a day — being 
$7,350. The Georgiana, 32 days, at $200 a day— $6,400. The Charleston, 10 
months, at $4,400 a month— $44,000. The Mobile was paid $11,625 for 25 days. 
The Minerva, 73 days, at $300 a day— $21,900. The Merchant, 85 days, at $450 
a day— $38,250. 

Many ether vessels were hired for short periods, at rates, which, on settlement, 



quadrupled the pr.ce at which they might have been purchased in the outset, so 
that much money would have been saved, if they had been bought and manned, 
and then burnt in the end. 

The cost of a wagon. 
Grant's concentric wheel wagon cost the Government $2,363.50, of which Mr. 
Grant was paid $654.50 for superintending the construction of it, and $15 was 
paid for engraving plates on the wheels, to travel in the sands of Florida. Ibid. 

Cost of 206 oxen. 
The purchase and delivery of 206 oxen was made to cost $12,187.20 — for, the 
oxen, $9,170.00; to the agent, $1,980.00; and for expenses in the transaction, 
$1,037.20. Ibid. 

Cost of house-rent and saddles. 

A house at Picolata was rented at $3,600 a year. For 30 saddles, $50 each 
was paid. For 12 do. $87.50 each. Ibid. 

At Pilatka, in 1840, when the end of the war was everyday expected, more than' 
$100,000 was expended in public buildings, on private lands, when there was 
government land hard by. It is of course sacrificed. 

Probable collusion in fraud on the public. 
The foregoing item3 of extravagance are hastily selected from heaps of evidence 
of the same clasi brought before the 27th Congress, by which it is proved, that the 
Florida war was generally carried on, in whole and in particular, at a rate of most 
astounding prodigality. All the public agents in these transactions, from the 
Treasury Department at Washington, down to the last recipient of the public 
money, were perfectly familiar with this daily round of facts, for a course of years. 
Can it be imagined, that in any state of society, however corrupt, such extrava- 
gance and waste would be tolerated, under the eyes of so many agents, if there 
was no collusion among them, and if they did not ail profit more or less by it ? Do 
not these facts reasonably account for the protracted period of that war, when so 
much money was to be made out of it by all engaged 1 

Great frauds in the removal of Indians. 

The removal of 16,533 Creek Indians was made to cost the Government 
8590,448.58. It is proved pretty fairly, by the Committee on Public Expenditures, 
that these 16,533 Indians might have been removed for $186,530, thus making 
a clear saving, in this single transaction, honestly done, of #303,91)9.42 — nearly two 
thirds of the actual cost. (Doc. No. 458.) 

It is proved in House Document A'o. 454, "2d Sess. 27th Congress, that Captain Buckner 
Was paid 837,749 fordoing nothing, alter having been paid a very exorbitant price for what he did 
oo, in removing Indians; — and the most remarkable part of the disclosure is, that a high public 
functionary received $18,000 of this as a lop.n from Capt. Buckner, apparently for his company 
and presence at the Treasury Department when the re iiiisition was being made out. Whether 
su< !i company silenced the scruples of the Auditor, this deponent cannot say. The evidence 
before the Committee standleth thus? Witness (Capt Buckner) asked — " What he could do for 
him V Ans. "Witness could loan him some money. Whereupon witness agreed to loan him 
■. 1 ,000." 

All these accounts were allowed at the Treasury Department! 

It is also proved that Captain Collins was entrusted with large sums of money, 
as disbursing agent, to the aggregate of $582,29.*, after he had proved himself a 
defaulter to one-third of this amount, and that the Government lost by him in the 
end the sum of $215,369. If settlements had been insisted on according to law, it 
would have been impossible, in any case of the most wilful fraud, to lose more than 
a small fraction of this amount. — (See No. 453, House Doc, 2d Sess., 27 th Congress.) 

Remarks on these facts. 
Speaking moderately, it may be presumed, from the volumes of evidence of this 
description that have been filed by the 27th Congress, that by an honest and prudent 
administration of these affairs, the Florida war miirht have been brought to a close, 
and the Indian tribes all removed, at one half the actual cost to the country. 
Moreover, from what has transpired, there is also a reasonable presumption that the 
j eriod of the Florida war might have been abridged by several years. 



Can any one suppose there was no collusion, no connivance among those who 
had tho responsibility in these great concerns, for the advantage, pecuniary or 
political, that might accrue to them personally ! With some the profit was pecu- 
niary, with others political. 

Defalcation and frauds under the Subtreasury system. 

We mean the system of entrusting the public funds in the liands of individuals, 
instead of keeping them in banks. It is not easy to collect an exact account of 
this, but from the reports of Mr. Secretary Woodbury — a reluctant witness — of 
1834, 1833, and 1839, on this subject, we obtain the following result from his 
somewhat mystified statements, in connexion with other facts that have transpired, 
viz: — that the Government^ since its foundation, had lost by banks, $857,890.85; 
and by individuals, in the various forms of trust, about $15,000,000. 

It is now ascertained, that the loss by individuals in Mr. Van Buren's- four years, 
as the result of his system of Subtreasury, was about $5,000,000, if we include 
what has since been developed under the operation of that system, and through his 
appointees ; whereas, the first Whig defalcator in public trust, for two years, is yet 
to be found out. The annual aggregate of frauds, therefore, of Mr. Van Buren's 
Subtreasury system, may be put down at $1,250,000. The annual aggregate of 
like frauds by the Whigs, so far as has transpired — f). 

It is somewhat remarkable, that the account between the Government and the 
United States Bank, as to loss and profit in all transactions for forty years, stands 
thus: — Loss to Government — 0; profit to Government — $1,100,000, for premium 
on stocks, besides dividends, and the gratuitous functions of the bank as fiscal agent 
of the Government for the said forty years. 

A recollection. 
All must remember the disclosures forced from Mr. Secretary Woodbury, under 
the late administration, regarding the frequency, character, and great amount of 
defalcations under the Subtreasury, and the concurrent proofs brought before the 
public of Executive indulgence towards the offenders, in continuing them in office 
after their defalcations were proved — all for partisan, political objects. 

Frauds in the New York Custom House. 

The enormities that have been practised in this " Seat of Customs," are prodigious. The defal- 
cations of Swartwout, Hoyt, &. Co. — amounting to about one million and a half, seem to have veiled 
the minor frauds. In. three years, 1838, '39, and '40, George A. Wasson received S94.430.92 for 
cartage and labor — nearly half for cartage — elfccted chiefly by charging for each package, 31 J 
to 50 cents, which was the price for a load — in that way making a load run up to five or ten dol- 
lars, according to the number of packages. The Stationery and printing, under Mr. Hoyt, for 
1838, '39, '40, and 1st qi&rter of 1841, cost §51,703.22— averaging 8275.76 a year to each 
person employed, being nearly double the average cost of stationery for each member of the 
House of Representatives in the 25th Congress, that being $287 for 2 years. It was by allowing 
$22 a gross for steel pens, when they could be bought for $1.50; .$3.50 a peck for sand, the fair 
price being 12i cents; §80 a ream for paper, worth $15; $12 for 1 card of Perryan pens, or 
§1.50,for each pen ; &c. &c. &c. No difficulty in making it up in that way. 

The revenue collected in the first year of Jonathan Thompson, 1825, was $15,754,827; em- 
ployed 142 men, at a cost of $211,471 ; or at the rate of 1 34-100 per cent. The revenue col- 
lected by Mr. Hoyt. in 1840, was $7,591,760; men employed 470, at a cost of $563,829; or at 
the rate of 7 42-100 per cent. 

In addition to the Collector's Salary, Mr. Hoyt, in violation of law, as alleged by the Com- 
mittee on Public Expenditures, took to himself, in all, $29,883.36 for storage of Merchandise in 
buildings rented on his private account, while the Government is charged §29,294.24 for salaries 
of storekeeper, clerks, and inspectors, and for stationery, employed and used in said buildings. 

Mr. Hoyt was reported to Congress by the Secretary of the Treasury, as a defaulter "for 
$226,295.31. But Mr. Hoyt, anticipating this, charged the Government (with his own hand, his 
clerk refusing) $201,580, that is, 1 per cent, on $20,158,000 paid over by him to the orders of the 
Secretary of the Treasury— that is, 1 per cent, for the banking part of the Collector's functions. 

In two years and four months, Mr. Butler, District Attorney, was paid by Mr. Hoyt, Collector, 
for services, $62,690.50 Mr. Iloyt's gleanings, it would seem, were somewhat less than a qrar- 
ter of a million for about three years service. (House Docs. Nos. 202 & 669,:2d Sess. 27th Cong.) 

We are sorry to observe, that the present Executive has in nowise abated the extravagancies 
of the New York Custom House. 

Public buildings. 
In 1836 Congress authorized the erection of a new Patent Office, the expense of which should 
not exceed $108,000. It is now expected it will cost, when finished, between $600,000 and 
$700,000. The Custom House at Boston was begun under a provision not to cost over $50,000. 



8 

It has already cost $696,000, and-will require $156,000 more to finish it. The New York Cus. 
torn House was begun with an appropriation of $200,000, and has cost over $1,100,000. [For 
more of the kind, see No. 460, House Doc. 2d Sess. 27th Congress.] 

The Branch Mints. 

These were designed, especially the one at New Orleans, to make Gold flow up the Mississippi. 
It seems they have rather tended to make it flow out into the Sea. That at New Orleans cost 
$554,470. The three branches cost $822,457. They were established in 1838, and previous to 
1842 had coined $2,884,708. The Philadelphia Mint cost $209,230, and in 1836 alone coined 
$7,764,900. The cost of coining at the branch mints has been 28 cents and 3 mills/or each dol- 
lar The cost of coining at Philadelphia 13 cents and 9 mills/or one hundred dollars. 

Items expended on the New Orleans Mint: — $8,099 for 4 bath-houses, flagging yard, and paving 
side-walk; $3,846 for paving yard; $1,700 for 7 baths and 1 water closet; $818 for finishing 
water closets; &c. &c. The voucher list of expenditures, numbering 272, is a curiosity — espe- 
cially edifiying to those who pay for it. [House Doc. No. 462, 2d Sess. 27th Congress.] 

Frauds in contracts for mail hags, blanks, Sfc. 

From House Doc. No. 989, 2d Session, 27th Congress, it appears, that the cost of mail bags, 
from 1831 to 1841, was $336,000; that Mr. Jewett, Ohio, contractor.was paid $68,124.13 for 4,782 
bags; that, in November, 1840, there were on his (Jewett's) hands 4,020 bags, not wanted, which 
cost $65,000; that a large overplus was in the hands of other contractors; that bags could be 
got at 50 per cent, less than was paid in those years; that, for blanks, $300,000 was paid between 
1829 and 1841, generally at about 50 per cent, more than fair price, leaving a supply on hand for 
twenty years to come ; that storage for these surplus articles was charged and allowed ; that, by 
these and other frauds, the expenditures of the Post Office Department were made to exceed its 
revenue, one year, by $386,759.19, and another year by $220,000, thus requiring special appro- 
priations out of the revenue from Customs and public lands, and rolling a heavy burden on the 
27th (Whig) Congress; that Cyrus Barton, Concord, N. H., for blanks, from 1836 to 1841, 
•eceived $13,927.14; Beals & Green, Boston, Mass., from 1829 to 1832, for do., received 
$51,732.76; Paine & Clark, New York, from 1836 to 1841, for do. do. $18,883.81; S. Penn, Jr. 
Louisville, Ky., for do. do. from 1830 to 1841, $26,942.58; S. Medary, Columbus, Ohio, in 1836, 
for do. do. $17,546.34; &c. &.c. &c. 

All these, ami other like favors, "for being ahoays at their post, actively engaged"— "stopping 
at no sacrifice that would insure success" — " in promoting the interests of the noble cause" — whicn 
" heartily entitled them to Executive favor" — &c, as stated in letters to the President. -See Doc. 
989, as above. 

The same Committee (on Public Expenditures) speak of the establishment of many new mail 
routes and post offices, not required, at great expense, for the benefit of partisan favorites, and 
of the "deep, dark, and unfathomable sinks," out of which these facts were fished, where many 
more of the same kind yet abide, which could hot be hooked up. 

Sundries of a like kind. 
From Document No. 756 of the House 2d Session, 27th Congress, it appears, that the Com- 
missioning of Ships, and the increase of officers in the Navy, have been at the discretion of the 
Executive ; that the expenses of the Navy had been doubled in 10 years ; that naval officers had 
been multiplied beyond former example, without sufficient cause ; that the number in 1835 was 
1,051 and in 1842 was 1512, when 365, with an aggregate pay of $350,000, were " absent on 
leave, or waiting orders," that is, doing nothing ; that many had been thus unemployed for ten, 
twelve, or fourteen years, receiving pav. and being promoted ; that the annual cost of the "coast 
survey" had risen from $20,000 in 1832 to $100,000 in 1840; that the Superintendent of the 
" Coast Survey" had a salary of $6,000, one of his Assistants $4,000, three others $3,000 each, 
and three more $2,000 each; that from 1834 to 1841, seventy-two naval officers, at different 
times, had been "detailed into the " Coast Survey" service, and while thus occupied, received 
double paq; that the Revenue Cutter service, being at the discretion of the Executive, rose from 
an annual- cost of $163,755 in 1830, to $274,803 in 1837, while the revenue collected had de- 
creased about one third ; that the expenses of the Land Office rose in one year from $23,500 to 
$108 750 and remained in 1841 at $98,500, when the land revenue was only $1,400,000 ; and 
that the expenses of the army had risen from $2,100,935 in 1829, to $4,197,028 in 1841. 

Extra Allowances. 

The above instance of 72 naval officers detailed into the " Coast Survey" service, with extra 
pay, is an example. This license, unwarranted by law, had pervaded the army and navy, and 
crept into other branches of the public service, to such an extent, as to amount, in the aggregate, 
to scarcely, if at all less than a million a year. It was a germ of corruption, of alarming growth, 
corresponding with the plurality system'under the British Government, which the reformers of 
that nation are fast breaking down, and which has always been allowed to be one of the greatest 
enormities in the British empire. 

Expenditures without authority of law. 

Liberties of this kind, to a great extent, were taken, in the progress of the two administrations 
that preceded the present. A very licentious practice of voting large contingent funds, for the 
different departments of Government, had obtained, which presented temptations, and opened a 
floodgate of corruption, to the higher and lower public functionaries. Many hundred thousand 
dollars had in this way been put at the discretion of the existing Administration, no small portion 



■ 9 

of which was squandered for most unsuitable partisan or private ends. The sacred deposites 
of trust funds of various descriptions, were invaded and exhausted, without sanction of law. 

The new practice of having large outstanding appropriations, lying over from one year to an- 
other, which often amounted to many millions, enough in some cases for the annual expendi- 
tures of the Government, was introduced and carried on in the last two administrations, and has 
often been abused by applying such appropriations to objects not designated by law, at the dis- 
cretion of the Administration. In this way, there was never any want of funds, when a partisan 
object required it, or a private whim was to be gratified, or favorites wanted patronage. 

Secret and partisan emissaries were by this means sent out, under the guise of Government 
Agents, for this, that, or the other object, the chief errand being confidential. It was only 
necessary to have a nominul Government design, though unauthorized bylaw, to find an apology 
for drawing on contingent or trust funds, or on dormant outstanding appropriations. Special 
Agents, almost without number, were, from time to time, put in commission for home or foreign 
missions, on the basis of this practice. 

Mr. George Plitt was sent abroad, as Post Office Agent, under Amos Kendall, at $16 a day, 
till the expenses ran up to 9,6l5G.Gi, the payment of which was sanctioned by Mr. Van Buren, 
as President, without authority of law. In the same manner three young men were sent out in 
ISoO, by Mr. Poinsett, Secretary of War, to the Cavalry School, at Saumur, in France, and three 
more in 1840 — ;;// without authority of law. Americans sent to Europe to learn to ride and ma- 
nage a horse, at the public expense, at the whim of a public functionary, and without legislative 
sanction ! 

An Administration partisan press also experienced the benefits of contingent and disposable 
funds in the hands of the Executive and his agents, in the two years of 1838 and 1839, Mr. 
Kendall, Post Master General, contrived to run up bills for advertising and printing in one 
Newspaper office, the Statesman, Columbus, Ohio, to the amount of $9,848.21. (Blue Book.) 
And so it was done all over the Union, by the different Executive Departments at Washington. 

Remark. 

It should be observed, that the quotations we have madr\ showing extravagance and corruption 
in the Government, are only a few selections, extracted from voluminous and authentic public 
documents, furnished principally by that laborious and indefatigable Committee on Public Ex- 
penditures, whose toils in the last Congress have brought so much of hitherto concealed frauds 
to the light of day. The number and extent of them are hardly credible, and we regret that we 
have not space for more copious extracts. What wc give is merely as a. peep into the great mass, 
the entire of which will readily account for the extraordinary and otherwise unaccountable 
v expenditures of the last two Administrations, from whose books our facts and figures come. 

Comparative expenses of our Government at different periods. 
The expenses of our Government down to the end of Mr. Jefferson's administra- 
tion, appear to have been frugal and exemplary. The cost of Washington's admin- 
istration, comprehending eisrht years, was only - $1 5,892,188 

Of John Adams's four years, 21,450,351 

Of Jefferson's eight do., 41,300,783 

As the war with Great Britain came under Mr. Madison's terms of office, eight 
years, the expenses were of course extraordinary, and mounted up to $144,684,939 

Monroe's eight years, 104,463,400 

J. Q. Adams's four do. 50,501,914 

It may be thought that the expenses of Mr. Monroe's and Mr J. Q. Adams's ad- 
ministrations, were disproportionately large, as compared with the earlier days of 
the republic. But the growth of the country may account for a part of it, and the 
grander projects of the nation, suggested by the experience of the war, for the 
other part. 

But it is somewhat startling to find the expenses of General Jackson's adminis- 
tration of eight years mounting up to - - - - $145,792,735, 
being greater than the cost of Mr. Madison's eight years, which had the war with 
Giant Pvitain on hand. But yet more startling is the announcement of the fact, that 
Mr. Van Buren's administration of only four years, cost the nation $140,585,321. 
In eight years, at this rate, it would have been ... 281,170,642. 
There are no apparent reasons, aside from the facts disclosed by the investigat- 
in:r Committees of the 27th Congress— nor are these very satisfactory — for this 
rapi 1 and amazing increase of national expenditures. Besides, that the Florida 
war was unnecessarily protracted and unnecessarily expensive, as has been shown, 
by the corruption and frauds involved in it, that, even as it was, will not account 
for but a small fraction of this great excess of expenditures above all former exam- 
ple. And what else extraordinary was there ] 

Appropriations of the 27th Congress — great reduction of expenditures. 
Appropriations are generally in excess of the expenditures, with a view of grant- 



10 

>'ng a liberal supply. The appropriations of the 27th Congress for 1842, being" 
the last half of one fiscal year and the lirst half of anotner, falling in 1842, were 
$21,6; 13,784.58. 

It should be observed, however, that the charges of the Post Office Department, 
about one million and a half, are a part of this appropriation, which should be de- 
ducted for a fair comparison, as the revenues and disbursements of that Department 
have heretofore beenkeptby themselves, and not reckoned with those of the Gov- 
ernment. Nor was the debt of the District of Columbia, one million and a half 
(assumed), or the two per cent, land fund and land distribution appropriations, falling' 
in this account, properly chargeable to this administration — all of which deducted, 
would reduce the appropriations for 1842 to less than sixteen millions. 

The appropriations for the six months, between January 1, and June 30, 1843, 
were $8,166,418.00; and for the fiscal year, ending- June 30, 1844, they were 
$16,332,837.00. 

A comparison. 
Compare the appropriations of the 27th Congress with the annual expenditures of Mr. Van 
Buren's administration, as reported by the Treasury Department, July 2d, 1841 : — 

Expenditure of 1837 $37,265,037 15 

1838 39,455,438 35 

1839 37,614,936 15 

1840 27,249,909 51 

Total - - - $140,585,321 16 
The annual average of the expenditure of Mr. Van Buren's ad- 
ministration would be 35,146,330 29 

Compare this average with the appropriations of the 27th Congress for the year ending June 
30, 1844, which may fairly be taken as the level to which a Whig Congress has brought the ex- 
penses of Government, viz. $16,332,837, which is less, by $2,580,656.19. than half the annual 
average of the expenses of Mr. VaJi Buren's Administration; or less by $18,813,493.29, than the 
entire average ; or less by $23,122,601.35 than the highest annual expenditure of Mr. Van Buren. 

Remarks. 

A result and fact of the kind above demonstrated, needs no comment. It will fall a cpwrm 
upon a Government-ridden, long abused, and oppressed nation, and open their eyes to the past 
and the future. They will see— -for it is proved — that the charges brought by the Whigs in 1840, 
against the then existing and former Administrations, of profligacy, corruption, and prodigality, 
are sustained; and that the expenses of Government lor many years were nearly double, at least 
one third greater than what was necessary. 

Bad Stewardship. 

Mr. Van Buren came into power with six millions of dollars in the Treasury; he took for the 
uses of Government the eight millions of United States Bank Stock that was owned by the Gov- 
ernment; he also took the fourth instalment due to the States by the Deposite Act of 1836, which 
was nine millions ; the Treasury Notes outstanding on the 4th of March, 1841, when he retired 
to give place to General Harrison, were somewhat over six millions and a half; the whole 
amounting to about thirty millions, which is the amount he expended, during his four years, in 
excess of the revenues of the Government. 

In addition to this, the outstanding appropriations on the 4th of March, 1841, were about 
twenty-nine millions. These, of course, were so many liabilities of the Treasury, and conse- 
quently so much additional burden or debt on the incoming Administration — swelling the whole 
account to nearly sixty millions, in excess of the revenues of the period of his Administration. 
It is fair, however, to credit Mr. Van Buren the nine millions of outstanding appropriations that 
were imposed upon him, when lie came into power, March 4, 1837. We have, then, this result, 
that the expenditures of Mr. Van Buren's Administration, including his appropriations thrown 
upon the succeeding Administration, were fifty millions in excess of the revenues of his term 
of office. . 

Further than this: — The conditions of the Compromise Act of ]832 were about to strike off 
five millions o/ revenue in 1841, and five millions more in 1842. Yet the Government, in full 
view of the excessive expenditures of the past, and of this diminishing revenue for the future, 
had made no provision for this extraordinary and overwhelming state of things, brought about 
by its own profligacy and improvidence. 

It is manifest, that no Government could long maintain itself under such a stewardship ; and 
that in our case, from the moment Mr. Van Buren took change of our public affairs, till he re- 
signed them, we were descending straight and rapidly into a deep gulf of debt and ruin. Indeed, 
our momentum downward was so great, when he gave up the reins, that it was impossible to 
hold up — and here we are in consequence. We should, however, have done better, if treason had 
not prevented. 

An illustration. 

A steward is put in charge of a large estate for a given time, with plenty of money, with a 
regular income from the tenants equal to all expenditures, with no incumbrances on the property, 
but large sums due to it and at interest, and is bound so to manage it, as to deliver it up at the 
end of his time, in as good a condition as it was in when he took it. 



11 

But the first thing he does, is to spend all the money left in his hands ; then he calls in the 
debts, which were intended to remain on interest, and spends that; by want of foresight, bad 
management, and prodigality, the income from the farms and other property gradually falls off, 
and there is not enough to keep the estate in order ; by the same cause this state of thinga 
waxes worse and worse, and the estate is running in debt ; all his employees he indulges in the 
same habits of extravagance and profligacy, whose influence, coming in aid of his, helps on the 
general ruin; he is compelled largely to anticipate his income, and draw on the future; till at 
last, when the time of his stewardship has expired, the estate is deeply involved, is greatly injured 
by bad husbandry, the morals of the tenants are very much altered for the worse; and take it 
all in all, the next steward that comes, finds a hard enough task of it, to save the estate from 
complete ruin. 

The story we have told is that of the last Administration of our national affairs. 

Retrenchment and Reform. 

The grand result of reducing the appropriations to a little over sixteen millions a year, is 
sufficient evidence of what the 27th Congress achieved, in the way of retrenchment and 
reform. They found every department of the Government more or less ill organized, ineffi- 
cient, extravagant, and corrupt, exerting a most pernicious influence on the morals of the people, 
and squandering the public funds by tens of thousands, and by millions. The expenditures of the 
Government, by Such means, had been tripled since the administration of Mr. J. Q. Adams; 
but the 27th Congress, by applying the axe of retrenchment, with a salutary vengeance, brought 
the expenditures back again — fully back, if we take into consideration the growth of the coun- 
try. Boldly did they take the axe in hand, right lustily did they wield it, with coats and hats off, 
and the result is announced to the world. They spared not the estimates sent in by the Execu- 
tive Departments, but cut them down by millions. 

The cases to which the knife of excision, or the grubbing tools of eradication, have been ap- 
plied, are too numerous for specification in our limits. We can only speak of them generally. 

Some millions were lopped oft' from the expenses of the army, by an Act which reorganized 
and reduced it largely, and abolished numerous sinecures, and the corrupt custom of extra 
allowances, which sometimes exceeded regular pay, and which, as a whole, were enormous. 
The abuses that had crept into the army, augmenting expenditures, were flagrant and startling. 
They were boldly taken in hand, and provided against for the future. 

There was the Board of Navy Commissioners in their easy chairs at Washington, deteriorating 
the Navy every day, and wasting money in vast sums by their decisions. It was abolished ; and 
the whole Navy Department was reorganized by an Act of Congress, introducing a new system 
of economy and efficiency, as well in the machinery of the Department itself, as in the various 
branches of the naval service — thereby retrenching from one to two millions in the general ser- 
vice, and saving many millions from waste. 

An Act was passed amending the organization of the Civil Departments, suppressing the sys- 
tem of contingent and general appropriations; cutting off the power of pensioning a partisan 
press, by ordering the public printing to be done on contract with fair dealers, in open market ; 
ordering purchases and other Government Jobbings, on the same principle ; reducing and limit- 
ing allowances of various kinds — all a saving of millions. 

TI19 vast peculations and frauds in the Indian Department, Land Offices, and Custom Houses, 
were hunted out and reformed — an immense saving. The contingent expenses of Congress 
were cut down to an honest level, and former abuses corrected. All branches of the public ser- 
vice were thoroughly overhauled, examined, retrenched, and reformed — to the saving of many 
millions, as the appropriations demonstrate. 

An instructive fact. 

If the estimates of the Executive Departments, as sent into Congress, had been taken as the 
rule of legislation in the appropriations, we should have beerl but little, if at all, better off than 
before. The 27th Congress thought it their duty to cut them down by many millions. All this 
will serve to convince the people how little sympathy there is in the Executive for their burdens, 
and that they must look to Congress, if they have a good one. for retrenchment and reform. The 
Executive has no interest in such operations, but the contrary. From that quarter come all 
abuses in the way of extravagance and corruption. At that very moment, and all the while that 
the 27th Congress were doing this great work for the people, the Executive and his pensioned 
press were waging a fierce and savage war against them, and denouncing them as the enefnies 
of the people. 

Private Justice. 

It is the highest praise of a Government, that it respects private Justice. A large national 
debt had been hanging over us for many years, in the form of private claims, which Congress 
after Congress had warded off, and refused to hear, lest they should have money to pay. That 
appears to have been the reason that had filled the hearts of widows, orphans, and decrepid old 
men, with despair for a nation's injustice. It is certain, that former Congresses found enough 
other ways for their money. 

But the 27th Congress marched straight into these long arrears, examined the files, heard 
about a thousand cases, and granted relief in a little less than three hundred, which added so 
much to the demands on the Treasury. But it was Just. The appropriations for private claims 
at the last session were a little less than one tfiirtift/i of the whole amount for a single year. We 
have not the means of exact comparison, but we think the private claims acted upon by the last 
Congress, were six, if not ten to one of the average of the preceding six Congresses — all which 
were left a debt by the preceding Administrations on the present. 



12 

Tlic time occupied in the Sessions of the 21th Congress. 

It was 450 days, about sixteen months — the longest time any other American Congress ever 
sat, by about three months. This has been made a subject of accusation without considering, 
1. That they had the Apportionment on a new census to fix, a work the materials of which are 
ten years accumulating, for which it would be no more than fair to allow one month. 2. That 
they had the Tariff to readjust, another accumulation of ten years, which may fairly be 
nut down for three months, on account of the greatness and difficulties of the task, in the pecu- 
liar circumstances of the case. There were between six and seven hundred articles to legislate 
upon, each of which was enough for a separate bill. Six plans of Tariff were got up, four 
passed, and two were vetoed. 3. The currency question, which, including all the hindrances and 
embarrassments occasioned by the Vetoes, and the new projects in the form of Exchequer plans, 
probably did not consume less than three months. 4. For the labors in retrenchment and reform, 
it is proper to allow another month. 

All these will probably be allowed to be extraordinary, not usually claiming the attention of 
Congress; and they amount altogether to eight months — which is half the time occupied by the 
three Sessions. 

When, therefore, these facts are considered, in connexion with the grand total of their labors, 
that the aggregate of the Reports made in both Houses, was 1849; of joint resolutions and bills 
acted on, 1328; and of laws finally passed, 514; the laws averaging as much more than one a 
elay, as 514 exceeds 450, a far greater proportion than any other Congress ever did in a given 
time; when all this is considered, the accusation falls to the ground, and the 27th Congress 
stands forth, not only vindicated, but entitled to the highest praise, in this particular. Certainly, 
it can never be said, that, by their protracted Sessions, they have increased the expenses of Gov- 
ernment, when it is proved, that they have reduced them one half. 

The discipline of the 21th Congress: 

Notwithstanding all the clamor about gag-laws, suppression of the freedom of debate, &c\, it 
is now generally conceded, even by the opposition in the late Congress, certainly it is felt by the 
country, that the one hour rule, and the assumption in the House of Representatives of the right 
to limit debate in Committee of the Whole, are among the best and most important regulations 
ever adopted by a deliberative body. It is a great reform, and it was by this, and by this only, 
that the 27th Congress were enabled to accomplish such a vast amount of business <!0 °reatly 
in excess of all preceding Congresses, in a given time. 

The custom that had grown up, of allowing one speech to be spun out two, sometimes three 
whole days, was an outrage, that should be scouted from the nation, with the indignant voice of 
popular reprobation. 

Land Distribution. 

Although, like the action of Congress on the currency question, this also was a failure by the 
interposition of the. veto power, it was nevertheless a prominent and important feature in the 
history of the 27th Congress. 

The terms of the cession were, that these " lands shall be a common fund for the use and 
benefit of such of the United States as have become, or shall become members of the Confede- 
racy, according to their usual respective proportions in the general charge and expenditure," after 
the objects of cession shall have been answered. General Jackson, in his message of 1832, 
says, " as the lands may now be considered as released from the pledge, the object for which 
they were ceded having been accomplished, it is in the discretion of Congress to dispose of 
them," &c. 

Besides the equity and consequent obligations of the case, there are four cogent political 
and eminently practical reasons, which urge distribution in some form. 1. The States are but 
integral parts of a whole — the Union. If the parts are weak, the whole is weak; and if the 
parts are strong, the whole is strong. The interests of the parts cannot be disjoined from those 
of the whole. 2. In the Federal Constitution, the States have relinquished the right of collect- 
ing revenue from imposts, and it is vested in the United States. This will naturally be regarded 
as conferring some obligations on the United States to be at least considerate and kind towards 
the States in their needs, when in danger of being driven to direct taxation for want of this 
power, and to help them if they can without violating the Constitution. 3. It will always be 
felt, and we think with truth and justice, and felt more and more, that it was the action of 
the Federal Government, which brought the indebted States and other parties, and the 
country generally, into these difficulties. Hence arises the obligation to render assistance, when 
it can be done in a proper and Constitutional way. 4. The importance of rescuing the tariff 
system from the fluctuating influence of an ever shifting land revenue, and the practical evils 
resulting from this connexion, would seem sufficient to make it better to give away the public 
lands, than to have such a disturbing cause for ever acting on the Tariff policy. Once dispose 
of this agitating question, and let the General Government depend on a Tariff for support, we 
may then hope for a permanent and uniform system of revenue and finance. 

Funding the public debt. 
This was a part of the doings of the 27th Congress. It will have been seen in a former part 
of this Tract, in what an embarrassed condition Mr. Van Buren left the Treasury and the public 
finances ; that he came in with six millions in the Treasury, afterwards took the eight millions of 
United States bank stock, and the nine millions instalment due the States — in all, with their 
fractions and interest, about twenty-four millions over and above the revenue — and that he went 
out, leaving the Treasury involved with six millions and a half of debt, in the form of Treasury 
notes, and other liabilities in the form of outstanding appropriations, amounting in all to nearly 
thirty-five millions. Add this thirty-five millions to the twenty-four millions, above referred to, 



13 

and deduct nine millions of outstanding appropriations left for Mr. Van Buren to provide for 
when he came into power, and we have the result of fifty millions run up by Mr. Van Buren in 
his four years, over and above the public revenue. 

Beside all this, there was a constantly descending revenue, resulting from the conditions of 
the compromise act of 1832, and from the misfortunes of the country. Five millions were to 
fall off by the first of these causes, in 1841, and five millions more in 1842. 

With this astounding state of things, inherited by the new administration, with such a debt, 
such liabilities of the Treasury, and such a revenue — what was to be done? 

The Whigs of the 27th Congress, like all honest men, were compelled to recognise the debt ; 
to call it by its right name ; but what should they do with it, and how provide for the prospect 
before them I They took the bull by the horns at once, put a ring in his nose, and got him under 
control, instead of hanging on to his tail, and being dragged after him in his wild and furious 
career, as the previous administration had done. They funded the debt, or a small part of it, 
twelve millions, and undertook to manage the rest as well as they could, by Treasury notes and 
other expedients, till prosperity might return under the operation of the contemplated Tariff. 

Providing for the extinction of the public debt. 
When a man has got in debt, if not discouraged, he undertakes to get out by fresh enterprise 
and frugality. There was no other way for the 27th Congress to provide for the extinction of 
the public debt imposed upon them by the previous administration, but by restoring public pros- 
perity by a Tariff. This they put in order, and by it the nation may gradually be relieved of all 
its burdens. 

Who created this public debt ? 

In view of the facts we have presented, it might seem very superfluous to put this question ; 
and yet the Lpcofoco press throughout the country is constantly iterating and reiterating the 
charge, that the Whigs made it. 

We observe a confession from the Hon. Cave Johnson, of Tennessee, in circulation, of a 
debt of $7,480,692.18, on the 4th of March, 1841, when Mr. Van Buren retired — which he (Mr 
Johnson) professes to have got from the Treasury. Add to this the outstanding appropriations, 
not reckoned by him, of $128,906,090.76, (House Doc. 281, 2d. Sess. 27th Con.), saddled on the 
incoming administration, and it makes the debt thus descending, or inherited, 836,386,782.94. 
These being the liabilities of the Treasury on that occasion, constitute the true story of the debt. 

The amount of these outstanding or undrawn appropriations, is remarkable. One fourth of 
this would be an egregious fault at any time. But the out-going administration on the 4th of 
March, 1841, had used up all funds, run down the revenue, got in debt, and found it convenient 
to saddle the burden on their successors, who had to provide for it all. 

Mr. Van Buren's furtive mode of creating a public debt. 

There is another cause of national debt which may be called furtive, growing out of the last 
administration, and stealing upon the present. It was neglecting to provide a revenue for the 
future, or permitting our only system of revenue to run down or run out. They broke it down. 
A Government is as much bound to provide for four years to come, as for next year; or is as 
responsible for breaking down the revenue for four coming years, as for one. By such means 
it entails a national debt. It is precisely the same as if it had left one. 

It has been seen, that Mr. Van Buren used up thirty millions more than the revenue of his 
term of office ; that he left more than thirty millions of a positive burden on the succeeding 
administration; and in addition to all this, he so managed our financial system, that it would not 
be possible to get more than half as much revenue in the next four years asihe got in his term, 
without a new organization, the benefits of which could not be realized under two or three 
years — scarcely less than four. All these things considered, the burden entailed by Mr. Van 
Buren on the succeeding administration, could not be less than fifty millions — a sum nearly 
enough to support a prudent administration for a whole term of four years. 

The worst thing of all. 

It were a small matter, that the expenses of Government should have been raised one half or 
onr third higher than was necessary, by fraud, peculation, defalcation, and extravagance, per- 
vading all its departments, as has been proved in these pages, if the destruction of the currency 
and other ruinous disasters, brought upon the whole nation and all its parts, by a mistaken and 
fatal policy, had not rendered the burden so heavy — so intolerable ; and if, moreover, the Gov- 
ernment had not allowed the system ef revenue itself to be broken down, thus leading to direct 
taxation of a people, who, by such causes, had been made so poor as to have nothing to pay it 
with. If they had left us the old state of things, our prosperity and our means, they might have 
run up the expenses of Government to fifty, or even a hundred vidlions a year — and we could 
have borne and carried it all easily. 

Confession of Mr. Woodbury. s. 

In December, 1840, Mr. Woodbury, then Secretary of the Treasury, said in his annual 
Report : — 

"Thus the progressive reduction of the present Tariff, which has been going on since 1833, 
will, after December, 1841, take effect to a much largei extent than heretofore. Nearly two 
millions and a half will then be deducted at once. 

5ff*(For page G.) Omitted — rather curious : — In 1837 Congress made an appropriation nf $210,000 2o 
remove obstructions in the mouth of the Mississippi. Various attempts were made at a cost of $223,231, 
in the bill of which we find the following interesting anil appropriate items:— For silver watches, §386; 
for hardware. $3,332; for port wine. $29.25; fines to sheriff", $14.10; hosiery, $23; hire of carriages, 
$58.25; omnibus tickets, $'i.T5; painting office sign, $0: dry goods, $106 ; miis'rpiito bars, $120; muslin, 
$77.53; repairing watches, $45.50 ; &.c. &c. &c. (House Doc. 458, 2d Sess. 27th Congress.) 



14 

"On the 1st of July afterwards, at least two millions and a half more of duties will be re- 
moved : making an aggregate in six months, of quite live millions. If the imports then should 
not diner much from those in 1838, iliis would leave an income from them not probably exceed- 
ing ten or eleven millions of dollars yearly. It will therefore be necessary to make correspond- 
ing reductions in the expenditures of 1842, or seasona ly provide otherwise, in some permanent 
manner, to supply all wants likely to happen from this cause." 

This is a confession to be noted, as coming from Mr. Woodbury, whose faculty of concealing 
such truths was fire-eminent. As a peep into the future from that position, however, and as 
usual for him, it does not disclose a thousandth part of the difficulties to be encountered, arising 
out of the improvidence and wastefulness of the Administration of which he was a part. There 
is, nevertheless, in this confession, a foreshadowing of a coming crisis. That Crisis, induced 
by the previous administration, the Whigs of the '27th Congress had to meet, and provide for. 
Air. Van Buren and his friends, adhering to their principles, would have been overthrown by it. 
They could never have repaired the mischief they had done. 

The Districting Law. \ 

The Constitution, on this subject, reads thus: — " The times, places, and manner of holding 
elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the legislature 
thereof; but the Congress may at any time by law make or alter such regidations, except as to the 
places of choosing Senators." 

Now, it happens, that the law of the 27th Congress, requiring each State to be divided into as 
many Congressional districts as there are Representatives, to the end that each member may 
represent his own district, still leaves the detail of these regulations, as to " times, places, and 
manner of holding the elections, to be prescribed by the State legislatures," as above directed by the 
Constitution, so that nothing of the power thus vested in the States, is taken away, notwithstanding 
the right of Congress to "alter such regulations by laio at any time," is clearly given in the same 
sentence. There is therefore not the slightest invasion of the pretended claim of the States, by 
this law. They are only required to elect by Districts, instead of the general ticket. 

The benefits of the district system are, li Uniformity in the mode of elections. Before, 
some, and most of the States, acted on the distrfct system ; others elected by general ticket. 

2. Fairness to all political parties. It might happen, when the majority of the people of the 
United States were of one political party, that the adoption of the general ticket in two or three 
States, should give the opposite party the ascendency in Congress — a very improper advantage. 

3. The District system is more democratic, and gives a chance to every district to elect a man 
whom the people know, to represent them and their interests; whereas the other system is con- 
trolled by the nominations of a few political demagogues, who thus control the people of a 
whole State, and the people of the Union. It is anfi-democratic. 

If Representatives elected by general ticket should be admitted into the next Congress, it will 
be against a law of the land — it will be nullification in the boldest form, the nullifiers standing 
up and acting in the capacity of the Supreme legislators. 

The remedial Justice bill. 

In the passage of this bill, the 27th Congress had to grapple with and settle one of the most 
delicate and most momentous questions involved in the relations of Federal and State Jurisdic- 
tions. All know, that the Constitution forbids the States to make war, or peace, or treaties with 
foreign powers; from which it might justly be inferred, that no State has a right so to exercise 
its independent authorities as to breed war. Yet it is manifest, that such was the tendency and 
hazard of the action of the New York authorities in the case of Alexander M'Leod. 

The object attained by the Remedial Justice bill, is to bring all such questions, involving inter- 
national relations, under the Federal Jurisdiction, and into the Courts of the United States, where 
they properly belong, so that it shall not be in the power of the authorities of a single State to 
involve the United States in war. 

TJie Tariff. 

This is a difficult subject, both in theory and practice. Facts only can decide the questions 
that rise. 

Tariff axioms. 

1. Free trade means fair trade, in popular phrase. 2. Fair trade requires, that if one nation 
has a tariff, its neighbor, trading with it, must have an equal one, for self-protection. 3. And 
consequently, the principles of free trade, require equal tariffs, or none at all. 4. Since other 
nations, with which we trade, have tariffs, we must have one too, to maintain our own rights, or 
unwisely suffer disadvantage and loss. 5. Reciprocity in tariffs is a principle of free trade — that 
is, the same practically. 

Specimens of foreign tariffs. 

The British Tariff on Louisiana sugar is 270 per cent.; on molasses, 400 do,; on American 
tobacco, 1200 do. ; on our spirits from grain, 2700 do. ; on our wheat, 60 do. ; on our salt beef. 
80 do. ; on our pork, 08 do. ; on our bacon, 85 do. ;' on our 1 imbcr, 96 do. ; on our staves, 110 do. ; 
<\:c. &c. &c. British duties on our most important agricultural staples — cotton excepted — are 
intended to be prohibitory, and are so. The duties collected in Europe on American tobacco, 
arc thirty-five millions of dollars annually — equal to the average annual expenditure of Mr. Van 
Buren's Administration; and double of the annual appropriations of the 27th (Whig) Congress. 
Surely, it is no more than fair to get something back for all this which foreigners get out of us — 
at least half of what Europe gets on our tobacco, which would amply support our Government 
i_nder a Whig Administration. 



15 



Objections to the Tariff of 1S42. 
It is said it is too high. The following is a comparative; statement (direct from the Treasury 
Department) of the Tariffs of 1824. '28, '32-3, and '42, in regard to a list of some of the most 
important articles, by which it will be seen that there is no foundation for this objection : — 



Species of Merchandise. 



Cloths and cassimeres - 

Merino shawls of wool *• 

Blankets not above 75 cents each 

" above 75 cents each -•;-'• 
Woollen hosiery, gloves, mits, &c. 

Worsted stuffs 

Worsted yarn 

Woollen yarn .--.--- 
Other manufactures of wool 
Wool unmanufactured not above 8 cts. per pound 
" above 8 cents per pound 

Flannels 

Baizes 

Cotton bagging ....-- 
Clothing ready made .-.-,■ 

Sugar, brown 

" white clayed, &c. 

" loaf 

Cheese 

Lard 

Lead, pig, bar, &c. 

Iron nails, cut 

" wrought ------ 

spikes, 

cables, chain, &c. 

Blacksmith's hammers and sledges 

castings, vessels of 

" other 

round and Brazier's rods .... 
nail and spike rods .... 

sheet and hoop 

bar manufactured by rolling - 
manufactured otherwise 
Salt ...:..-- 

Glass bottles, black, n hy a 1 quart 
n by a 2 quart 
Window glass, n by a 8 by 10 inches 

n by a 10 by 12 " - - 
above 10 by 12 " 
Shoes and slippers, silk -.-.-. 
prunelle, and other stuff 
leather .... 
children's .... 
Boots and bootees 



Rates of duty under the Tariffs of 



1824. 



36f per ct, 

3iij " 

hi " 

27i " 

27^ " 

36f " 

36* " 

3(>i " 

m " 

33 

30f " 

Sot " 

?.i cts. . 
33 per ct. 

3 cts. 

4 " 
12 " 

9 " 

3 " 

5 " 
5 " 

4 " 
3 " 

27^ per ct, 
Hcis. 
1 " 
3 " 
3 " 
3 " 
150 cwt. 
90 " 
20 cts. 
200 
250 
300 
350 
4f)0 
30 



55 per ct. 
55 " 
&k " 
38i " 
38| " 
27- " 
36§ " 
36f " 
'30} " 
55i & 4 cts, 
55^ & 4 cts 
49£ per ct. 
49A " 
5 cts. 
55 per ct. 

3 cts. 

4 " 
12 " 

9 " 
3 " 

3 " - 

5 " 
5 " 

4 " 
3 " 

il " 
l " 

3i" 

Si " 

3i '■ 

185 cwt. 

I ct-lb. 

20 cts. 
200 
250 
300 
350 . 
400 

30 

25 

25 

15 
150 



50 per ct. 
50 " 



25 " 
free 
20 per ct. 
50£ & 4 cts, 
50 per ct. 

free 
40£ & 4 cts, 
lii cts. 
10 " 

3^ " 
50 per ct. 

2| cts. 

3^ " 
12 " 

9 " 

3 " 

3 " 

5 " 



li " 
1 " 
3 " 
3 " 
3 " 
150 cwt. 
i)0 " 
10 cts. 
200 
250 
300 
350 
400 
30 
25 
25 
15 
150 



1842. 



40 per ct. 
40 " 
15 " 
25 " 
30 " 
30 " 
30 " 
30 " 
40 " 

5 " 
30J & 3 cts 
14 cts. 

14 " 

4 " 
50 per ct. 

2i cts. 

4 " 

6 " 
9 " 
3 " 
3 " 

3 " 

4 " 
3 " 
2i " 

1± " 
1 » 



125 cwt. 

85 " 
8 cts. 
300 
400 



It will be seen that the Tariff of 1828 is the highest of the four. It has been called " the bill 
of abominations." Yet Martin Van Buren, Richard M. Johnson, Thos. H. Benton, Mahlon 
Dickcrson, Silas Wright, and James Buchanan — all voted for it. Messrs. Wright and Buchanan 
also voted for the Tariff of 1842, and twenty of the Loco focos of the House. Indeed, the credit 
of the bill of 1842 is claimed for these, because, it is said, their vote carried it. 

It is also said, that the present Tariff will operate as prohibitory, and diminish revenue. It is 
a sufficient answer, to state the facts, that the highest Tariffs we have ever had, have produced 
the largest revenue, and that every quarter's return of the present Tariff, proves the same thfng. 
These facts are indisputable. 

It is moreover said, that a Tariff enhances prices of the goods on which it is imposed. Sup- 
pose it does, it is a voluntary tax, and in a Tariff like ours, it falls chiefly on the rich. But the 
thing is false, in application to a judicious Tariff, as the following statement, furnished by the 
Treasury Department, will show :— *■ 



Dcscriotion of articles. 


181G. 


1825. 


1829. 


1832. 


Price. 


Duty. 


Price 


Duty. 


Price. 


Duty. 


Price. 


Duty. 


Braces of 24 bits 
Hammers, per doz. 
Cupboard locks, per doz. 
Steelyards, per pair 
Hinges, cast butts, per doz. 
Compasses, rule joint, per doz. 
Currycombs, per doz. 


s. d. 
18 10 
12 

4 

4 8 

3 2 

4 2 
3 10 


per ct. 
20 
20 
20 
20 
20 
20 
20 


s. d. 
7 6 
7 2 
2 7 
2 9 

2 3 

3 I 
2 


per ct. 
25 
25 
25 
25 
25 
25 
25 


s. d. 
5 

5 4 
1 10 
1 4 

1 2 

2 7 
1 4 


per ct. 
25 
25 
25 
25 
25 
25 
25 


s. d. 
5 

4 2 
1 3 
1 

1 4 

1 10 

11 


per ct. 
25 
25 
25 
25 
25 
25 
25 




10 

The prices under 1816 show the rates before the Tariff <ff that year; those under 1825 show 
the effects of the Tariff of 1 8 1 1> ; and so on. Like effects were produced by those Tariffs on 
nearly all kinds of goods subject to increased duty, cotton and woollen fabrics, &c. &c. 

The Birmingham Factory of pins, in Connecticut, which, before the Tariff of 1842, was able 
to turn out a million s day, and undersell the imported pins, immediately lowered the prices six 
cents per pack, after the Tariff, which imposes a duty from 20 to 30 per cent, on this article. 

The following are from the prices current of domestic goods, at Lowell, Mass., immediately 
before and immediately after the Tariff of 1842 : 

Cotton drillings, ----- before the Tariff, 

j " shirtings, ... - do. do. 

, ■ " " heavy, - - do. do. 

" sheetings, - - - - do.- do. 

" " wide, - - do. do. 

Flannel, do. do. 

Woollens of different kinds fell from 12,\ to 20 per cent. 

The Collector of the Customs of New York, Mr. Curtis, in a letter to the Secretary of th 
Treasury, of Nov. 28, 1842, gives a long list of prices, before and after the Tariff, of articles o 
which an increased duty had been imposed, which proves, that the prices of such articles ha 
in all cases fallen, except on the best brandies — and fallen largely, for the most part. 

These facts prove, that a suitable protection of home industry and labor will enable domes! 
manufacturers to sell lower, and that home competition is quite sufficient to secure this end. 

Any Tariff, therefore, that is necessary for an adequate revenue, supersedes the necessity < 
direct taxation, and is an unspeakable blessing to the labor and industry of the country, besides th 
it lowers the prices of manufactured articles, while the wages of labor, and the staple produc 
of our own soil, everywhere rise. The firmer nets his goods cheaper, sells his products high< 
and finds a ready market By this means a foundation is laid for the re-establishment of a sou 
currency. It brings in the precious metals, and keeps them here. Accordingly we find, tl 
since the Tariff of 1842, they are flowing in upon us with great increase. 

The truth is, we can never have a sound and abundant currency, till the Tariff shall have h 
a fair and full experiment. For the want of it, our country had been drained of specie. It 
now flowing back again. 

Hence, the re-adjustment of our Tariff regulations, which, by the conditions of former led 
lation on the subject necessarily devolved on the 27th Congress, was, in fact, of greater imp] 
tance than the re-establishment of the currency. It was a sine qua non — the former being in< 
pensable as a basis of the latter. 

The Tariff is necessarily the first step in our return to prosperity. Not an inch can be re 
vered, but all would be backward and downward still, without it. Hence the important of 
27th, or Whig Congress, as the opposing party would never have granted this boon to the peo 
but would even now snatch it away, if they should dare. 

What we have proved. 

AVe submit whether the facts we have adduced do not prove, that there has been sometl 
bad — very bad in the administration of our Government for a length of years and that the 
pie in 1840 did not complain without reason, were not roused without cause. 
To whom ice are indebted. 

To the Whigs of the 27th Congress, laboring under the greatest possible disadvantages b; 
defection of the Chief Magistrate — or rather by the betrayal of the insincerity of his pretensio 
and contending'with a powerful opposition that conspired with a treacherous Executive to thi 
undermine, and defeat them — to the Whigs of that Congress, placed in such circumstances 
warring with such difficulties, is the nation indebted for these discoveries and results. '! In re i 
Great Fact, the doings of the 27th Congress, demonstrating what can be accomplished, 
against such obstacles, in the way of retrenchment and reform, in bringing to light the hi 
crimes of the past, and providing healing measures for the great misfortunes of the Countr 
What history will record of (he 27/h Congress. 

It will say— That it was begotten of an injured people, in hope of redress: Hint it was the irios 
ented ever assembled in the same place; that t ho majority of that body were men of honest }■»>', 
design, intent on great reform, so much demanded; that they were born to this great endeavor] 
shoutings, lived under a cloud, anil died grieving, if not lamented; that they had mure important bin 
coming before them, and did more, than any other Congress; thai what they left undone, was notj 
fault ; that they were placed in a position most anomalous, and had to contend with difficulties r 
alleled, by the perfidious conduct of the Chief Magistrate; that they came in after a set of men, w 
many years of a ruinous policy and destructive measures, had broken down the currency, run dov 
fljevenue, run down the people' and run down the country; that they were required to build all up 
in a day ; that they performed miracles for the circumstances in which they were placed, introduci 
reform, and effected large retrenchments, in a Government for a long time not guilty of such \\<>rl 
the contrary; that in fidelity of purpose and vigor of undertaking, they excelled all example of the 
and that they began a great and good work, achieved much of it, and Rut down a stake jn / 
can history, which will be looked to and hung to in all future time, so long as men may be 
improvement. 

The Future. 

In 1840 the instincts of a nation in deep distress, were roused for self-preservation, and th 
umphed. I!ut treason — rank treason snatched victory from the^yictors. In 1844, the^F* 
trial will come, and the weal or woo of this nation will then be fettled. There is no 
We have only to say to a disappointed, suffering, and half despairing; people, — 

Once more unto the breach, dear friends — Once More. 



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